Exciting New Finished Work

I finally have some images of the finished slipcast teapots I have been working on this semester!

Its always amazing how complex we sometimes make things for ourselves. Several of these pieces have very simple surface treatments that are highly effective.

I am pretty excited about these, let me know what you think!

Red Iron Oxide Rubbed into Texture, Soda Fired

Cedar Heights Fireclay applied as Slip, Soda Fired

Gold Luster Applied over bare clay, Custer Feldspar in gloss areas

Here are several other pieces that I recently fired in KCAI’s soda kiln “Bada Bing”

Soda fired work. The piece on the far right shows a new technique I began using to glaze the entire surface of the pot except small areas where wads are placed. This adds a nice decorative element to the underside of the piece and shows that there is attention being paid to an easily overlooked part of atmospheric firing: creative wad placement.

In soda, salt or wood firing, it is necessary to place your work on small pads of wadding (I use a 1:1mix of EPK and Alumina Hydrate). The reason for this procedure is that various compounds such as ash or sodium flow through the kiln during the firing, landing on your work. If it was not stilted on a sodium resistant material (alumina) the work may fuse to the kiln shelf, causing the foot to be chipped or broken when removing the work.

Well, thats about all I’ve got for right now, I’ll try to take some pictures of my work set up for our final critique on Monday. I will have a little more work that is being salt fired at this very moment!!!

Also, I mixed up a test batch for a clay body given to me by Val Cushing. It is flame ware, meaning that it has no thermal expansion and after firing can withstand direct flame. This means that pieces of this clay can be melted and brazed together without affecting the other areas. I am very excited to explore the properties of this new material!!! Thanks Val!

Peace!

New Stuff!

I recently found out that I have been accepted as an Artist in Residence at Red Star Stuidios! I am extremely excited about this opportunity and expect my work to grow immenseley during my time there. Here is a link to Red Star’s site if you want to know more: www.redstarstudios.org

Val Cushing was at KCAI recently and he gave several wonderful talks as well as private critiques and a half day workshop. It was amazing to have someone share so much knowledge in such a short period. Thanks Val!

I have been reading Garth Clark’s book Shards, it is quite an amazing book. Every time I pick it up I find learn something wonderful and new about ceramic art. Additionally, Clark is a fantastic writer and a pleasure to read. I highly recommend this book to anyone even vaguely interested in ceramic art.

Soon to come: Glaze library with photos of my results! I have noticed that quite a number of people find this site by searching for cone 10 glazes, etc… I have also noticed the difficulty in finding glaze recipes with accompanying images of the fired glaze. Well very soon you will have access to a small glaze database of the glazes I enjoy using and that I test for possible use. This area of my site will grow with time so be patient and soon I will have lots of good information available.

Here are some images illustrating the pieces I have been working on recently:

These unfired teapots were all created from the same plaster slip molds. Additional pieces from separate molds are used to create the lid, legs, spout and handle which can then be assembled in different configurations making each piece unique. I will post images of the finished glaze fired work as soon as I fire them. =)

These three pieces were recently salt fired and illustrate a new direction in my approach to glazing. At this time I am focusing using simpler glazed surfaces to emphasize the more complex forms.

New Stuff

I recently went to a workshop by John Neely, it was phenominal. Highly recommended to anyone!

I just shot some new images of my recent work including the teapot I have been working on in George Timock’s plaster class….very exciting!!!

Other images include some alternately designed cups I made over winter break at Red Star Studios and glaze fired last week at KCAI.

Also works in progress images from series of altered pitchers that I have been working on this semester at KCAI.

Here they are:

This teapot was created using four separate plaster slip casting molds that were themselves created from carved plaster positive objects.

Here are several pitchers with altered rims and handles attached then pulled from the pot. The two pitchers on the right have feet that were thrown and altered separately then attached later. All three pitchers have slab built spouts.

Here is a pitcher that I made earlier this semester. It was glazed with a light undercoat of a high titanium strontium matte glaze with a fake ash applied generously to the back side and then sprayed with a medium coat of Val Cushing’s Taffy glaze. This is one of my favorite glazes, it is quite amazing even by itself, just ask if you would like the recipe. After applying these three glazes, the pitcher was side fired setting on a catcher with wadded shells to cone 10 in a reduction atmosphere with soda introduced into the kiln from cone 9 to 10. After the soda introduction phase the kiln was held in a reduction cooling overnight (approx 8 hrs). I do not have a pyrometer to use with this kiln, but in the morning it looked to me to be in the neighborhood of cone 3 to 1. At this point the kiln was shut off and allowed to cool naturally.

This pot was in the same soda firing described above, it was also side fired on wadded shells. This form was created by folding the sides, cutting out a small section of the negative area between the handles and then working the clay back together to close the seam.

 

These thrown cut and reassembled cups were also in the above described soda firing, as was the following cup.

These three slipcast cups were created from the same mold, pulled from an adjustable heating ventilation elbow. I found this item at home depot and was extremely excited as it enabled me to capture some of the same posture and energy that I so enjoyed in the cut and reconstructed cups shown above. I plan to continue exploring both methods of construction and feel they have much potential.

These are some of the cups with alternate handle designs that I made at Red Star Studios a several months ago. The handles were created in the same method described above with the double-handled vase. The handles for the other cups were created using a sacrificial cylinder thrown only for the purpose of creating the handles which were subsequently cut off and attached to the cup.  You could also think of this method as slab building with cylinders.

Wow! I think this has been my longest post ever.

Please leave me comments if you have any questions, suggestions or if you just wanna say hello =)

Thank you all for your interest!

Whats New with Bowie?

Here are some new developments in my artistic life:

My work was featured at the Art’s Incubator gallery in the Crossroads Arts district in Kansas City this month!

School started again, and this semester in addition to senior studio I am also studying plaster mold making with the amazing mold-master George Timock!

I began an internship at Red Star Studios, where in the fall I will hopefully become an artist in residence!

and the final and possibly most exciting development:

This summer I am going to study abroad at the International Ceramics Center in Kecskemet, Hungary!!!
(Thats right, my wife is completely awesome and is allowing me to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity)

Yeah!!! I am very excited about all of these things!

also:

I will be attending a workshop given by John Neely at Kansas State University next weekend! This should be very cool too!

well, I guess thats about all for now, I will post more images soon and also update my resume, artist statement and proposal.

Thanks for your interest and don’t be shy about leaving comments!

New Images!

I have finally got some new images of my work up, here are a few, click on the link to the right that says home to view some others!

The Persistence of Craft: Chapter 2 The Genre

I found chapter 2 of The Persistence of Craft to be much more interesting than chapter 1. My favorite part was when Paul Greenhalgh used the word “symbologies.” Ha ha, it reminded me of one of my favorite movies Boondock Saints:

Detective Dolly: So what’s the symbology there?
Paul Smecker: Well, now that Duffy has relinquished his “King Bonehead” crown I see we have an heir to the throne! I believe the word you were looking for is “symbolism.” What is the ssss-himbolism.

Anyway here is some of what I found worthy of discussion. “Because an object is made out of fired clay it does not mean it is ceramic (p. 25).” Hmmmmm……..Let’s check the dictionary on that one:

Definitions of ‘ceramic’ (sə-rămĭk) - 2 definitions - The American Heritage® Dictionary

ceramic

(n.)

Any of various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing a nonmetallic mineral, such as clay, at a high temperature.

ceramic

(n.)

An object, such as earthenware, porcelain, or tile, made of ceramic.

Definition #2 is funny “ceramic: an object……made of ceramic” Greenhalgh went on to say: “This is because a genre is not premised simply on materials and technologies, some derive their inner cohesion from a set of iconographies, histories, utilitarian functions and social roles.” Well that may be true, but in my book fired clay is still ceramic.

Other areas of interest: I enjoyed the idea expressed saying that as you are painting you are “simultaneously engaging in the heritage of a thousand years.” Thats a pretty cool concept and if you apply it to clay you can engage in the heritage of all of human civilization! I also liked what was said about Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde giving “credence…to the notion that the greatest art was achieved by individual artists working in a direct and honest way with materials.” And the notion of craft having to do with “the direct intervention of the self in the material world, a means of asserting personal control…” I like these ideas as they imply the presence of the maker in the finished product.

Another idea I identified with: “this fusion of the universal and the personal is the central function of the genre in late Modern culture and a key to the persistence of craft.”

The final interesting concept found in this reading is the paragraph discussing the “power…that effervesces from successful objects, those works of art that comfortable take part in the millennia of history without losing sight of the present: works that engage with all of us hile remaining faithful to the discourses of their own kind.”

This Chapter renewed my faith that interest could be found in a subject that was introduced (chapter 1) rather dryly.

New Work!!

I recently began a new vein of work that I am very excited about.  Here are some images:

These cups were each constructed from two bottomless cylinders which were cut and recombined with a seperately thrown foot, enabling me to adjust the lean of the cup at the end of construction.  The handles were made from individually pulled segments.

Below is a vase constructed in a similar method.

Cone 10 Reduction: First finished pots at KCAI!

I finally got some pots glazed and fired.  I’m pretty happy with the initial results.  I began using a cone 6 version of Steven Hill’s Strontium Crystal Magic glaze near the end of my last semester at KSU, so I decided to continue working with this glaze now at cone 10.  Here is a picture of my faorite one:

Mission Clay / Kineko

A while back I went to Mission Clay in Pittsburg Kansas for the kiln opening ceremony of Jun Kineko’s.  It was quite a party.  There were tons of people there who were all served excellent free BBQ and drinks!  Jun’s work was of course amazing and the kilns were of course huge.  Here are some pictures:

Holy Crap thats a huge extruder!!!

A monster Dango inside a monster kiln!

A giant face with slick looking blue slip!

Enormous beehive kiln!

Chris Gustin

I recently did some research into the work of Chris Gustin. He generally creates work which strongle relates to the figure. These figurative vessel forms are handbuilt, strongly referencing the interior space of the vessel. These vessels are then given a rich glaze surface that has a good amount of depth. These smooth flowing surfaces invite the touch and ask for investigation. I enjoy the deep surfaces and touchable quality of these pieces and would very much like to capture some of the same qualities in my own work.

The web presentation of Chris Gustin’s work I feel is very good. The site is simple and easy to navigate. The display uses a basic white background and lots of images. I feel this simple approach puts more emphasis on the images and information without anything that is distracting.

www.gustinceramics.com